Khoa+LamLBF

Executive Summary
More than 250 responses from approximately 42% males and 58% females were collected for EDTEC 670’s Learning, Boredom and Fun Analysis survey. Aside from age, gender and level of education attained, respondents noted whether they were or weren’t expected to listen, watch, interact, think creatively etc. during boring and fun learning events. They were also asked to describe these events in detail and explain why it was personally boring or fun. Filters were applied in the SurveyMonkey tool to pinpoint trends, and further data was sorted and extracted in excel spreadsheets.

What Makes Learning Boring or Fun?

 * Adult learners often fall victim to “death by PowerPoint” in a lecture setting. ** 13 respondents, all at least 17 years old, mention PowerPoint in their boring experience. 76.9% (10) did not expect to interact with the instructor. Michael states that his professor “just read for three straight hours from PowerPoint slides.” Craig Laig had a “dry lecture that was basically being read off the PowerPoint.” DG notes that his professor would read every lecture verbatim off slides. **What would make PowerPoint fun:** Kaybee was the only respondent who had a fun PowerPoint experience: “The instructor had a PowerPoint presentation, but mainly talked from her fund of knowledge and was interactive with the audience.” Based on the responses, learners want an interactive lecture where the instructor presents the material more in the form of a dialogue than a formalized presentation.
 * The majority of learners who mention math have had a boring experience. ** Out of these 20 respondents, 50% (10) didn’t expect to interact with the instructor and 90% (18) didn’t expect to interact with other learners. Jim H says that his teacher “did not attempt to bring the dry subject matter to life”. Honky Cat was looking for some student participation or other form of engagement. It seems many people do not enjoy mathematics to begin with, and boring instruction only makes their experience more frustrating. **What would make math fun:** Only one person, Das, spoke of a fun experience in math class where the instructor created a song about subtraction and had students help each other out. 85% (17) with boring experiences felt they were not expected to be creative, and most suggest that math equations would be more interesting if applied to real-world situations.
 * Online courses with communication technology still do not substitute for face-to-face interaction for many adult learners. ** 14 respondents age 23-51 say that their online learning experience was boring. Juliana Samson finds it “a challenge to keep focused with an electronic voice as opposed to a live voice”. Dana J has “a shorter attention span listening to someone speak online compared to having the instructor speak to us in person in a classroom setting”. Despite the fact that an instructor is present, these learners lost patience having to sit in front of a computer and/or listen to an electronic sounding voice. **What would make online courses fun:** On the other hand, 4 different respondents had a fun online experience thanks to interesting content and the convenience of being at home. Not a single respondent with a boring online experience expected to interact with other learners, and only 7.1% (1) expected to interact with the instructor. Instead of being the only person speaking, instructors can invite students to participate and work in groups to keep them engaged.
 * Videos can bore learners if they are too long and/or do not include discussion. ** 6 respondents shared a boring experience with video where 66.7% (4) did not expect to think creatively or critically. Dancer had to “sit still for almost an hour without talking and moving”, cupcake’s informational video “was too long and the narrator had a monotone voice”. Other responses note low instructor involvement and production quality, which shows that videos can cause even less interest. **What would make videos fun:** Of the 16 respondents with a fun video experience, 68.8% (11) expected to think creatively, think critically, and interact with others. Pippi shares that her class would watch videos and then discuss immediately afterwards. For Tazumi, “the combination of engaging lecture with video and audio information, followed by the group discussion made it a valuable as well as interesting learning experience”. Beth O’s instructor asked questions randomly during a video forcing her to stay on her toes and make sure she was absorbing the information. These fun experiences show that instructors are more effective when they use video to supplement learning, not just replace it.
 * The majority of adult learners find a training course boring when they are not expected to perform the objectives. ** Out of the 48 respondents aged 18 and up who mention a boring training experience, 76% (38) were not expected to perform or present. Scott reflects that his experience “didn't provide employees with the opportunity to practice what they were learning”. M. Rich has a similar opinion stating that “it was boring because we didn't get to apply the skill”. Mjb goes on to say that she “did not need this training - it was mandatory”, which highlights the importance of audience analysis when implementing training so that learners find value in it. **What would make a training course fun:** 30 respondents wrote about a fun training experience, with 80% (24) expecting to interact with other learners, 69% (20) expecting to interact with some artifact or technology, and 73.3% (22) expecting to perform and think creatively. Pancakehead reflects on her experience: “The training was fun because of the variety of ways it was handled. Some listening, some watching, lots of discussing, and lots of doing. It wasn't the same thing for the whole day.” Teacher24 “liked immediately being able to use each feature of the program as it was being explained” during technology training. These fun experiences allowed learners to take control and receive immediate feedback.

Implications
As you can see, I took a slightly different approach by focusing on specific topics that yielded both boring and fun responses and compared them for differences. One important lesson learned after looking through the data from this survey is to make sure the learner knows how the content is relevant to them. When a learner finds personal value in the content, their level of engagement will naturally be higher, and the experience will more likely be fun than boring. In addition to making the content relevant, another important design element is to include interactivity in a learning event. Sitting still, listening, and not interacting were the most common responses tried to boring learning events. Additionally, the advancement of technology brings forth many new possibilities for delivering instruction, but with it comes more design challenges and higher expectations from learners to keep them interested.